Profit from Renewable Energy

How would you like to smile every time it rains for days or there is long snowy winter?

One way is to invest in renewable power stocks to get exposure to the growing market for green energy - a good choice is Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners. It currently yields 4.5% and just announced an increase yesterday.

Brookfield targets 60-70% of income for distribution, meaning there is plenty of cash to develop more projects to add to income. As a result, Brookfield is targeting an annual increase in distributions of 3-5% which should support the share price over time.

Brookfield has a pipeline of projects, and strong long term relationships with the design and construction experts to bring these projects online. Its hydroelectric generation portfolio consists of 170 hydropower facilities, powered by the flow of water whenever it rains, or when snow melts during the spring "freshet".

Many projects, like those in Ontario are supported by 20 year power purchase agreements which means the customer is guaranteed to buy the product year after year at set prices. So when it rains, the river flows and the cash register rings. Compare that to companies like Apple who need a new product and reinvention every 6 months to keep customers flowing into stores and to keep market share.

The Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners chart has been up and to the right for years. There are a lot of reasons to expect it to continue. Volatility is relatively low (beta of 0.28), which means you can sleep at night, and holding it may even put a little smile on your face whenever it rains and snows!

PS - Brookfield also has solar farms, which means you can smile rain or shine.